Geoege millee and john eeicheet



MILLER 81. REICHERT.

Billiard Game Keeper.

Patented Aug. 21, 1866.

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UNITED STATES PATENIRQFFICE.

GEORGE MILLER AND JOHN REICHERT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSLGNORS TO JQHNREIOHERT AND DOMINIGOS EOTTKAMP.

BlLLlARD-GAME KEEPER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 57,443, dated August21, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE MILLER and JOHN REIOHEET, both of the city,county, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and ImprovedBilliard-Game Keeper; and we do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe drawing which accompanies and forms a part of this specification.

The game of billiards is one of the most popular and fascinating of thepresent day. In many private families the table and the string uponwhich the game is kept have been introduced in order to keep the youngermembers of the family from those places where dissipation prevails.WVhile inventive genius has been alive to improve the board upon whichthe game is played and surroundings, the structure or device for keepingthe game still remains the same. Still is heard the click of thestick'and counters against each other, respectively, and still is seenthe ungainly swaying to and fro of the strings. One inroad has beenattempted upon the old style of keeping the game by the use of a framecontaining two tiers of numbers, from one upward, and

having a pointer for each tier sliding along underneath. These pointersare moved with the hand, there being a dial above the tiers for thepurpose of registering the successive games as the termini on the tiersare reached by the pointers. This last method is objectionable, for thereason that it admits of foul play and of mistakes being made, as in theold way of keeping the game.

Our improved keeper is at once efficient and reliable. It checks allfoul play and enables the parties to keep their eyes at all timesdirected to the motion and position of the balls on the table, the earkeeping the run of the count.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our saidimprovement, we will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The game-keeper is composed of a duplicate mechanism, so that only oneside or portion will be here explained, the other side being the exactcounterpart thereof.

ais the division-plate. bis the plate against which one of the dials isattached. a c are the pillars connecting these two plates. There arebetween these two pillars two arbors, (Z 0. These arbors project upthrough the dial and have each a. hand attached for registering.

The arbor 61 contains a ratchet-wheel, f, against which works the pawlg, said pawl being attached to an arm the boss of which is upon thearbor containing said wheel. This arm has a spring placed behind it, sothat when the toe of the lever h lifts the arm to move the ratchet-wheeland has moved up out of contact, and thereby released said arm, it willcause the pawl to move back on the ratchetwheel a specified distance,the ratchet-wheel beingheld the distance the said pawl has been so movedby another pawl, 17, on the opposite side. hen this ratchet-wheel f hasmade one revolution the pin or disk j on its side will raise the arm 7;,which has jointed thereto an upright pawl, Z, (the pawl having a springattached,) and as it is raised it is thrown against the ratchet-wheel mon the arbor c, and as the pin j moves away out of contact with the armk the said pawl 1 brings down the ratchetwheel m a fixed distance,thereby registering one game.

The pawl n on the opposite side of the ratchet-wheel m serves to keepthe wheel on rigid while the pawl is being raised, and only releasingsaid wheel the necessary distance as the pawl l, engaged in the wheel,falls with it.

The keeper is operated on either side, in order to register a singlecount at a time, by the lever h, which being drawn down by the cord andtassel to be attached, the toe p raises the arm and pawl g, which lattercarries the ratchet-wheel along a given distance-say one onehundredth ofa circle-when the toe gets out of the line of contact with said arm, andbeing above it the arm falls and the pawl is enabled to slip back overthe ratchet-wheel the distance it moved said wheel along by. means ofthe wheel being held firm by the pawl 27, as stated, and the hand it onthe index registers one count. Below this arm and pawl g is a projections, to which is attached a small hammer, which, as the arm and pawl gdrops quickly, strikes the little bell q, denoting to the ear of theplayer thata countis registered.

The lever h is rigged with the spiral spring and arm 7' 1", whichenables the, lever h to move back into its place when the cord to beattached to the outer end of said lever is released from the hand of thebilliard-player. The toe 1), having a moving joint at r, enables it topass underneath the arm and pawl 9, so as to be ready to again raisesaid arm and pawl when required. The lever h is arranged in the samemanner and attached to the same arm as lever h is, and, acting on theprojection s, or longer arm of pawl g, has the same mode of operation aslever h, except that it moves the ratchetwheel f five counts at a time,and thereby saving repeated and separate registering by means of saidlever h. To enable the operator to distinguish the working of this leverh, its toe first strikes the arm 0, which, as seen, causes an additionalalarm to be made when five is to be registered. The toe of lever hpasses back beneath the arms it operates in the same manner as the leverIt does with respect to the arm and pawl g each time it is used and bysimilar mechanism.

Thus itwill be seen that by the bell-rope and tassel in the hands of aplayer the lei'erh will cause the hand on the dial to register one ormore on the game up to five or over; but if five, ten, or fifteen countsare required to be registered at a time, a bell-rope and tassel, largeror of another color, and attached to the lever k, can be made toregister them within a shorter space of time.

It is evident from the feregoing that when hand 25 has made onerevolution hand a will register one game, and so on upward.

Having thus described our improved billiard game keeper, what we claimas our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patcut, is

l. The combination of the ratchet-wheels f m, pawls l g, theretoattached, arms k k, and operating-levers h h on either side of thedivision-plate, arranged and operating substantially as and for thepurpose herein described.

2. The combination of the ratchet wheels, pawls thereto attached,operating-levers, and the arms, hammers, and bells, or their equivlents,on either side of the division-plate, arranged and operatingsubstantially as and for the purpose herein described.

3. The levers h h, with their toes arranged and operating substantiallyas and for the purpose herein described.

4. The combination of the ratchet-wheel f, pawl g, and lever h, eitherwith or without the bell attachment, arranged and operatingsubstantially as and for the purpose herein described.

5. The combination of the ratchet-wheel f, pawl g, arm 8, and levers hh, either with or without the hell attachment, arranged and operatingsubstantially as and for the pur pose herein described.

. GEORGE MILLER. JOHN REIGHERT.

Witnesses:

ANDREW I. TODD, J. W. HAUXHURST.

